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It is officially a new year, and yes Praxedes, we somehow survived the annual mandatory blood alcohol poisoning that is part of the rituals of ringing out the old and ringing in the new.

Below, numbered for enumeration and not for order of importance, are my memorable basketball moments for 2017:

1. Kevin Durant made the move and won his championship ring.

There are those who think Durant ought to be commended for finally coming to terms with the fact that he and Russell Westbrook will never win an NBA world title together in Oklahoma City.

There are also those who think Durant should never ever be allowed into the Hall of Fame because he took the easiest way out of that little conundrum by signing with the Golden State Warriors, effectively ensconcing the NBA title in the West for all time, or at least the next decade.

Durant did what he had to do, and did it at a time when he can still win multiple championships in Oakland. Yes, if he was as great as he thinks he is then he should have stayed in Oklahoma and proven it.

But then again, he doesn't owe anybody any explanation or excuse about making a move that is simply a no-brainer if he wants to have the one thing that all the true greats have, a championship.

Unless LeBron James is cloned in Cleveland then the NBA has become boring for the next decade or so.

2. Ginebra retains its Governors Cup title.

Ginebra San Miguel and Meralco played to a record crowd of over 54,000 fans at the Philippine Arena in Bulacan in the Mother of all Game 7's as the Gin Kings retained their PBA Governors Cup championship.

Greg Slaughter, who sat out the 2016 title run due to injury, finally got his first PBA championship on the hardwood floor.

Meralco put up a heck of a fight, but in the end the superior size of Ginebra proved just to big (literally) an obstacle to overcome.

If the Game 7 box office and television share was any indication, Ginebra is still the lifeblood of the PBA.

3. Lyceum went from shit to sweep in the NCAA.

Talk about the Lyceum Pirates in the NCAA and you'd normally get word associations such as "cellar dweller", "league doormat", "whipping boys". At least until this season.

This season the Pirates completed an historic 18-game regular season sweep of the NCAA, including two tough games against reigning champion San Beda.

Granted they eventually folded when it mattered most, getting swept 2-0 in the Finals as the Red Lions went on to continue their NCAA Dynasty.

Still, no one can ever take away what Coach Topex Robinson, CJ Perez and the rest of the Pirates achieved this season. That si probably a record that will stand for the better part of this century.

4. Christian Standhardinger, through no fault of his own, is now June Mar Fajardo's teammate.

Mention Christian Standhardinger and what automatically comes to mind is the controversial trade that allowed the already powerful San Miguel Beer franchise to draft him with the Number 1 pick in the 2017 PBA Rookie Draft.

No one except the most hardcore of hoops fans even heard of Standhardinger before this year.

He is a strapping and active 6-foot-8 Filipino-German forward who spent his college years in the US NCAA.

Then Gilas head coach Chot Reyes summoned him for national team duty and he answered the call.

Although he was classified by FIBA as a naturalized player and not a local, he saw action with Gilas and showed Pinoy fans why Reyes wanted him.

Fast forward to Draft Day 2017 and Kia gives up the rights to the Number 1 pick in favor of some role players, allowing the Beermen to nab Standhardinger.

He now gets to play alongside four-time MVP Fajardo, although not right away since he still has an active ABL contract to play out.

Kia, as mentioned above, gave up the chance to get Standhardinger in the draft essentially for three role players: JR Reyes, Ronald Tubid, and Filipino-American Rashawn McCarthy. Uh, who? Yes Praxedes, that was what everybody thought as well.

Anyway, where were we? Ah yes, Narvasa.

This trade would not have been consummated had Narvasa not approved it as Commissioner.

This then led to a "schism" of sorts within the PBA Board, with five team allied with the San Miguel Corporation on one side, supporting Narvasa, and seven teams led by the PLDT Group on the other side asking for Narvasa's head on a platter.

Although Narvasa held out for a while, he did eventually give up and resign.

While every PBA fan's attention is on the ongoing Finals between Barangay Ginebra and Meralco (currently with the Gin Kings leading the series 3-2), a bit of news suddenly diverted a lot of attention away from the Finals and on to the 2017 PBA Draft set in a few days from this writing.

Apparently Kia, the league's doormat, owns the Number 1 pick in this year's draft, a pick they could use to select either 6-foot-8 Filipino-German forward-center Christian Standhardinger, or 5-foot-10 multimedia darling and former Ateneo superstar guard Kiefer Ravena. Yes, Praxedes, those two are the consensus Top 2 picks, with the German lad most likely to go first overall.

For a team as down on their luck as the Picanto, Praxedes would be justified in thinking that Kia ought to be drooling and jonesing even, for the chance to get either Standhardinger or Ravena, both of whom could become franchise stars for them. And no, Manny-bloody-Pacquiao does not count.

This is where things suddenly went all deja vu.

News reports have it that Kia and San Miguel Beer were looking to put a trade together.

San Miguel would get the Number 1 pick from Kia, while Kia would get a slew of Beermen bench players, ranging from the immortal Ronald Tubid to the who-the-heck-is-that Rashawn McCarthy.

Let's let that sink in for a while: Kia is willing to trade a probable (not just possible) franchise star for a bunch of so-so players who are either unproven or nearing the end of their careers.

But wait, there's more!

Later reports have it that the Beermen were also willing to give up Filipino-American forward Matt Ganuelas, steady veterans Gabby Espinas and Yancy De Ocampo, along with all the other players aforementioned.

You can just imagine the shit storm the news stirred up. It was so monumental that buss for the proposed trade (not yet approved by the Commissioner's Office as of this writing) was at one time generating almost as much media buzz as the Ginebra-Meralco Finals.

The scout's sentiments were pretty much echoing the general sentiments among basketball fans and sports observers.

Of course Mr Scout has a day job that allos him to have other information that the typical fan might not be privy to. "RSA (San Miguel boss Ramon S Ang) bailed out the owners of BMW, who are also the owners of Kia, so hindi na mahirap mag-one plus one na hawak ni RSA sa leeg ang Kia."

But they gave Troy Rosario away too when they had a chance to draft him, said I.

"It only goes to show na may ibang gustong mangyari talaga ang Kia," he replied.

Indeed, the Picanto have given away not just Rosario, a Gilas mainstay, but also the likes of bull strong Bradwyn Guinto, the versatile KG Canaleta and Aldrech Ramos (the two guys they got for Rosario), Alex Mallari, Karl Dehesa, etc etc.

It should therefore not come as a surprise that Kia is once again in the thick of a questionable trade.

If ever, San Miguel Beer will add a high quality, internationally proven big man to a team that sent four of its starters to the season's Mythical 5, including MVP Fajardo. Standhardinger or Ravena would definitely give them a high quality sixth man, or even a new starter while sending a Mythical 5 or MVP awardee off the bench. They almost completed a Grand Slam, how much better will they be with this year's Number 1 pick?

For PBA Commissioner Chito Narvasa, he's still trying to sort things out on this proposed trade.

"I'm talking to Kia and San Miguel officials," he said in one interview. "People say it is about parity in the league. But teams have the same right as anybody else to decide their fate. At the end of the day, it has to be about what is good for the PBA, families themselves, and the teams themselves," he added.

Those aren't exactly words to reassure fans and media alike about what the league is going to do about a trade no sane person would ever consider fair.

As is the usual practice, talk at our table centered mainly around basketball, specifically recruitment.

"Malapit na Fil Oil ah," he stated, referring to the Fil Oil-Flying V Premiere Cup, the summer basketball tournament organized by the local petroleum company that bears the same name.

I nodded, knowing this tournament would begin after the Holy Week, so it was only about a week or two away.

"Sino mga bago natin?" he inquired, referring to who the new players might be on our varsity roster.

I shrugged. Apart from transfer student Gab Reyes, and two players who failed to make the last season's regular roster for different reasons, I actually had no clue who any of our new talent (if any) there might be.

I told him about Reyes, and the other two guys: Tyler Tio and Gian Mamuyac. He was of course familiar with all three, since we had followed their developments even as far back as their high school days. I said they were doing well in the offseason tournaments like the Fr Martin Cup and the Milcu Got Skills Challenge Cup.

He didn't sound too impressed. "That's it?"

I nodded.

"So what we have is an athletic forward who Lord only knows has been doing what the last couple of years we haven't heard a thing from him, a guy who should have been lined up last season were it not for paperwork that had nothing to do with his game, and another guy who we both agreed should have been lined up ahead of at least three other guys who didn't actually do shit for us last season. Would that be accurate?"

I nodded again. Although I did add that at least we're getting three guys who aren't total greenhorns and who could come in and play right away within the system of the team and the coach, which is always valuable.

"Valuable, yes, but doesn't guarantee us a title does it?" he asked, rhetorically as usual.

My wife was busy putting fried rice, squid heads, beef, broccoli, tofu, and clams on our plates while we were engrossed in our little discussion. It pays to marry the right woman, I tell you. She will make sure you can keep enjoying a good meal without having to skip a beat in your in-depth basketball conversation.

I said that with Reyes, Tio, Mamuyac we would have a better perimeter now, that can provide firepower, defense, experience, and much-needed speed.

"I hardly think Tyler and Gab will provide speed, only Gian is a natural runner in that bunch. You are correct though that Tyler can provide additional firepower, Gab too, because Gab I think is a better shooter than Thirdy Ravena. But then again Gab might be what, in his fourth year in college by now, dapat lang naman sigurong gumagawa na siya, athletic naman siya, may pukol, sa edad niya dapat lang naman kaya na niya gumawa. So once again we have to thank Lasalle for another guy they couldn't use, because now he gets to play in a blue uniform," he expounded.

"Far from it, I think we will return to the Finals at the very least, where once again our problem will be how to match up against (Benoit) Mbala. Sino pantatapat natin sa kanya, sina (Chibuezee) Ikeh at George (Go) na naman? Hindi porke nakapalag tayo kahit papano last year ganun-ganun lang magagawa natin ulit 'yon this year."

Sam Miguel usually handles the PBA, but this time he let me have a go at it.

It was over one of our regular dinners with Mr Libog that the subject of comparing the great San Miguel Beer teams came up.

Coincidentally I just had an interesting exchange with the great Bill "William the Conqueror" Velasco the afternoon earlier about this same topic.

Here's the deal: Which of the three great San Miguel Beer teams is the best, the 1989 Grand Slam team, the 2-Danny's team of the late 1990's to early 2000's, or the current 2017 team of June Mar Fajardo.

Of course the discussions we had were much too free-flowing, so maybe let us set some "parameters" if we can.

First off, it is easy to be tempted to look at individual players and their stats and just say this guy scored more, rebounded more, passed more, etc etc, and therefore he is clearly better than the other guy. We can't really do that. Remember, those stats were not made against each other, these teams never played against each other, so those stats were only for a particular point in the fabric of the basketball time-space continuum. They might be useful but they cannot be the be-all and end-all of this discussion. The same thing holds true for individual awards like the MVP trophy. You all know how I (and Sam) feel about the very concept of an MVP in the first place.

Secondly, we have to look at them as teams, and from the particular eras in which they dominated. This must hold especially true for the 1989 team because of the presence there of Ramon Fernandez, the man widely recognized as the best Filipino basketball player ever. (More on this particular point later.) In 1989 Fernandez was a year removed from the last of his four MVP awards, and was no longer the stud he was from say the late 1970's to maybe the earlier half of the 1980's. He still had great game of course, but he was no longer at the peak of his powers here. This will be very important to keep in mind.

Third, since this is 2017, we will compare these three great teams through the prism of current PBA officiating, so in terms of officiating we will look at this in terms of what is allowed, and no longer allowed by current PBA rules, such as the Flagrant 1 and Flagrant 2 distinctions.

Fourth, and I cannot stress this enough, if you do not believe that both the game and the players have somehow or other evolved, at least from 1989-onward, then we can end this discussion right here.

Fifth and last, let us pretend that all three teams could be put in a mini-tournament, triple round robin eliminations, so each team gets six elimination games each, with the top two teams facing off in a best of seven Finals.

Bearing all of these in mind, let me get straight to the conclusion Mr Libog and I agreed on: the Finals would be between the 2-Danny's team and June Mar's team; the Grand Slam team would get its licks in but in the end would not have enough size and talent to knock off either of the later-generation teams.

Let's get the admitted facts out of the way first.

Mr Libog and I agreed that Allan Caidic, hands down, is the only one from the 1989 team who could still play the game as it is being played in 2017. Caidic is without a doubt the best damn shooter ever that this country has produced. Ever. Take all of the best shooters across all the generations and Caidic would be the best among that esteemed lot.

June Mar Fajardo will go down in history as the best player ever, regardless of position. At his young age he will probably win at least a dozen more PBA championships, and maybe at least a half dozen more MVP awards. He has truly changed the game just by being here. You're talking about a 6-10, 260- to 270-pound player who has touch, good footwork, agility, and mobility, and can even run in transition. Yes, Fernandez displayed far more skill, coming close one season to averaging a near-triple double for an entire year. But Fernandez never changed the game the way Fajardo did, simply because for all his wondrous talent, Fernandez was a normal-sized Filipino big man, in that 6-5 to 6-5 range. Had Fernandez been at least 6-8, then maybe we'd have a different opinion. But Fajardo is completely different owing precisely to his sheer size, and he isn't the barely-skilled lumbering lummox that say Bonel Balingit, or Chris Bolado, or EJ Feihl, or Dong Polisitico were. Fajardo, far more certainly, is better than fellow skilled skyscraper types such as Marlou Aquino and Yancy De Ocampo. And let us not forget, he is not only tall and long, he is thick-bodied and massive. It is that complete package that has allowed him to amass the titles and accolades he has, and he isn't even 30 years old.

"Dynamite" Danny Seigle will go down in PBA history as the best player never to win an MVP award. This is a very
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For the fans, whether casual or diehard, having both the San Miguel-Talk N Text Series, and the Ginebra-Star Series go the full seven games, is a dream come true.

After all, Game 7's are the ultimate thrill for any fan. It pits two teams so evenly matched that they need to go the full route of seven games to decide the winner.

There is after all no more tomorrow for the losing team, and no team ever wants to be the losing team, especially if it has gone the distance as these two series have.

Only coaches and players want best-of-7-series to end in sweeps, and understandably so, no sense in prolonging a series when you can end it quickly, as the San Antonio Spurs have done, twice at that, in two of the NBA Finals they've won in the last decade or so.

Of course it is not just the fans that are happy with a Game 7.

The league itself, in this case the venerable PBA, Asia's pioneering play-for-pay basketball league, is indubitably happy that both semifinal series of the ongoing Philippine Cup conference have gone on to the seven-game ultimate do-or-die. Allow me to explain, Praxedes.

Every game in a semifinal series promises to be a quality game. And for San Miguel-TNT, and Ginebra-Star, that has been the norm indeed. There haven't been any 30-point blowouts, or any other indications that either series is a monumental mismatch not worth the basketball public's time and ticket money.

The notable exception was last night's (as of this writing) Game 6 between Ginebra and Star. Ginebra pulled away in the third quarter and just plain went nuts in the payoff period to win pulling away 91-67. Joe Devance, Sol Mercado, and Jervy Cruz took turns in putting some distance between their Gin Kings and the Star Hotshots, and it all rubbed off on the end-of-bench players as even the seldom used 6-4 forward Jam Jamito scored on a short jumper in garbage time.

Where were we, Praxedes? Oh yes, the league.

The PBA is an organization that thrives of PR and media values. The more people watch the games, preferably in the venues, but on TV and online streaming is fine too, the more they keep their member-teams, and their sponsors and advertisers happy.

Let's put it another way: a 30-second commercial on prime time TV can cost a company a few millions. Now imagine if that company had a PBA team, and that team was in this semifinals. Their brand will get at least two hours worth of direct mentions on prime time, with millions of eyeballs watching live, or on TV, or via online streaming. How many 30-second commercials' worth is two to two and a half hours of prime time mentions? And then how many millions are those two to two and a half hours worth?

Granted the four protagonists in these semifinals are among the top brands and companies in the country already, still, there is nothing like brand equity coming from live, prime time exposure, and in a critical sports setting at that.

Those with a dirty mind (such as Praxedes) might of course be thinking that the PBA had somehow orchestrated this whole shebang, that these teams are not really all that evenly matched, but that is mere conjecture and ultimately nearly impossible to prove with actual and real evidence.

Sure, there have been some disappearing acts from key players, such as Marcio Lassiter and Paul Lee at crucial junctures of the middle games of their respective series.

Sure, some of the whistles and non-whistles have been of the hair-tearing variety, and on either side at that.

Sure, the Ginebra-Star series has features some of the most woefully low-scoring games in a long while in PBA playoffs history.

But then again, don't we get those anyway regardless of stage of conference or season? All of the bad things we see we tend to turn into bogeymen just because they seem to fit a notion we have one way or another.

In the end we the fans are getting a rare treat indeed, and we can choose to enjoy the game we all love, at its most enjoyable, or we can choose to create conspiracies where there might be none.

As for the games themselves, it says here we get a San Miguel-Ginebra Finals.